Izzy

Melbourne

— December 21, 2017 —

Isobel Wallbridge-Hall — more commonly referred to as ‘Izzy’ — is a 22-year-old model from Melbourne who treads the line between being a Leo and a Virgo. If she were to take someone for a spin around Melbs for the first time, her first port of call would be dropping by her fam beach house on the Mornington Peninsula, a place that has given her some of her “favourite memories” over the years. Outside of its close proximity to the beach, she reckons her guests would be wow’d by the lit views/places that are on offer up near Flinders and Red Hill. Uh, yes please.

Izzy is a city chick, through and through. Often she’ll head into the city and walk around by herself, listening to music, because she “loves the feeling of being there with all these different people just doing their own thing.” After returning back from overseas trips, she also likes to come back and look at all the buildings as if seeing them for the first time, in the hopes of discovering something she hasn’t seen before. When she’s not strolling around the city in solitude, she likes to make a “real day of it” with friends, by going to a museum or cafe. Christmas is her absolute fave, and all of her fondest childhood memories stem from that time of year. “Even now when all the Christmas stuff starts coming into shops, [and] it gives me a nice fuzzy feeling and reminds me of a being a kid,” she says, echoing all the Christmas #feels we are experiencing right now heading into summer. To her, the best thing about growing up is being able to do all the stuff she dreamed of doing as a kid, be it as lavish as going overseas by herself, or as simple as heading to a gig or going out to coffee with friends.

And the least? “When I was really young the other kids used to say I looked like a boy, because I was really tall and had hairy arms and legs, and really thick dark eyebrows,” she says. “That definitely played a massive part in how I’ve seen myself and my self-esteem growing up, and it wasn’t until recently that I’ve just accepted it and embraced it and boy do I live a happier life now that those things don’t bother me.” Yes!

She j’adores being a young person living in 2017, and particularly one that lives in Melbourne. “The fashion and creativity that you can encounter in this city is something that really excites me,” she explains.

“There’s so much to do and I feel a real sense of freedom with all the choice we have when it comes to expressing yourself. I don’t feel a pressure to fit into a certain mold and certainly within my social group I feel encouraged to embrace the things that make us different.”

In saying that, she misses the ability to disconnect from the online world. Despite loving Instagram, she finds it weird that we’re constantly able to monitor where our friends and family are at all times. She knows she’s guilty of it, but the “separation anxiety” she gets when she doesn’t have her phones makes her yearn for the archaic days of yesteryear when smartphones weren’t a thing. Same, girl, same.

Despite that, she feels for the most part that our generation is much more accepting and tolerant of others. “Obviously there is always people who aren’t, but I think young people of today and growing into far more considerate people compared to past generations,” she believes.

“In terms of what we need to work on, I think certainly we need to find a good balance between being online and living in the real world. It’s far more important to spend time with loved ones than what’s popping on instagram.”

We asked her what her favourite ever shoot to date has been, and to our delight, she said it was a toss up between this one and another she did with her bestie earlier this year. She often feels shy and awkward on shoots, but was comfy as with Cathy behind the lens and Thalea dressing her up in steezy threads. In her mind, a good location and even better company makes for a super illchay shoot! Another shoot that comes to mind was one she recently did with Japanese/New Zealand brand, Otsu. Made out of linen, the garments were “beautiful” and it was such “a fun shoot” with amazing people. She vibes hard on designer Yuka, and can definitely get around the brand knowing that “such a strong woman is behind it all.”

Izzy is happiest when she’s able to “just hang out with my friends, have a few wines and chill listening to music.” She’s known her two best friends for so long, and has been through so much with them, that she’s able to just be 100% herself, which makes her the cheesy grin emoji face. She derives most of her inspiration from girls who are “killing it, just doing their thing” and especially in music. She recently started reading Patti Smith’s book Just Kids, and loves the “badass and her rags-to-riches story.” Another girl hero of hers is Courtney Love, and while she acknowledges that she’s a “problematic fave”, it pisses her off that Courtney was “demonized for all these things that Kurt Cobain was idolized for.” This kind of double standard serves as a constant reminder to her that “there is still this injustice towards girls and women, and we’ve really got to fight to make our voices heard in a world that caters to men.” True.

She’s thought about the meaning of ‘cool’ a lot, and thinks the concept of ‘coolness’ is a highly subjective thing.

“Things that I find cool aren’t necessarily going to do it for everyone and vice versa. I find people cool when they are doing the things that make them happy, and wear the clothes that make them feel good, and listen to the music they want to listen to, no matter what other people say. It’s really hard to please and appeal to everyone, so you might as well please yourself as much as you can.”